Cindy had prepared a snack for Kolo, but
was slow delivering it. Koko reacted by
signing, "Alligator chase lip." ("Lip" is Ko
ko's idiosyncratic term for a girl or woman.)
A puzzled Cindy asked, "Alligator?" "Alli
gator do that hurry," replied Koko, indicat
ing the plate of food. Cindy reflected, and
then laughed-Koko seemed to be resorting
to verbal scare tactics to expedite the treat.
I have exploited Koko's irrational fear of
this reptile by placing toy alligators in parts
of the trailer I don't want her to touch. Con
sequently, at first glance a visitor might
suspect that it is the temple of some obscure
religious cult.
Remembrance of Events and Emotions
A cardinal characteristic of human lan
guage is displacement, the ability to refer to
events removed in time and place from the
act of communication. To learn whether an
other animal has this ability, we try to find
out if the animal uses its sign vocabulary
merely to label the events ofits world, or if it
is framing propositions that re-create a par
ticular event. Does the animal use its sym
bols to refer to events earlier or later in time?
Koko and I had a revealing conversation
about a biting incident. My try at cross
examination-three days after the event
went much as follows:
Me: "What did you do to Penny?"
Koko: "Bite." (Koko, at the time of the in
cident, called it a scratch.)
Me: "You admit it?"
Koko: "Sorry bite scratch."
(At this point I showed Koko the mark on
my hand-it really did look like a scratch.)
Koko: "Wrong bite."
Me: "Why bite?"
Koko: "Because mad."
Me: "Why mad?"
Koko: "Don't know."
The entire conversation concerns a past
event and, equally significant, a past emo
tional state. It is not a discussion one would
expect to have with an animal whose memo
ries were dim, unsorted recollections of pain
and pleasure. Of striking import to me was
that Koko knew she could not remember or
express whatever it was that had prompted
the bite.
Koko Learns to Lie
Perhaps the most telling, yet elusive, evi
dence that a creature can displace events is
lying. When someone tells a lie, he is using
language to distort the listener's perception
of reality. He is using symbols to describe
something that never happened, or won't
happen. Evidence I have been accumulat
ing strongly suggests that Koko expresses a
make-believe capacity similar to humans'.
At about the age of 5 Koko discovered the
value of the lie to get herself out of a jam.
After numerous repeat performances I'm
convinced that Koko really is lying in these
circumstances and not merely making mis
takes. One of her first lies also involved the
reconstruction of an earlier happening. My
assistant Kate Mann was with Koko, then
tipping the scales at 90 pounds, when the go
rilla plumped down on the kitchen sink in
the trailer and it separated from its frame
and dropped out of alignment. Later, when
I asked Koko if she broke the sink, she
signed, "Kate there bad," pointing to the
ConversationsWith a Gorilla
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